The recipe for excellent headlines

Who among all of us professional communicators doesn’t love—or at least appreciate—a good headline?

In my former life as a journalist at the Chicago Sun-Times, a colleague and I had an ongoing contest to see who could persuade the front-page editors to use our headline ideas for the day’s top news and sports stories.

Though we had a couple accepted during our respective tenures, it was a rare feat worthy of celebration. It was usually no more than a couple words, and theirs were always better.

Marketers are often tasked with writing headlines that cut through the noise and get attention—and clicks—but what makes a good headline? Consider the following:

Eight out of ten people say they’ll read a headline, but only two out of ten are likely to click through and read the article. Some have even suggested that writers should spend half the time it took to write a piece in crafting a headline.

Quick Sprout published an infographic sharing the recipe for successful headlines: